‘No one else will chase your dreams’: meet the inner-city rider hoping to change lives
A rider who credits horses for changing his life is now hoping to inspire others into the industry – including social media personality James Argent.
Fabian Williams, known as the Blessed Equestrian, grew up in a deprived area of London and first rode at an early age but, his friend Jordan Abankwah told H&H, Fabian was bullied as he did not fit in.
“He didn’t look like the others or talk like them,” Jordan said. “He didn’t feel accepted by the industry; he started hanging around with the wrong people, he was struggling to find his own identity. But things changed. He started engaging with boxing, and found confidence and acceptance, then he found a horse called Apple, who changed his life. Without that horse, I don’t know if he would know who he is.”
Fabian started creating videos featuring Apple and attracted a following on social media, which he hopes will show others that they can do what he does.
“A few weeks ago, he spoke at the National Equine Show, and so many young people came up to him and said they were being bullied, and how hearing his story and what he’d been through made them feel passionate about continuing,” Jordan said. “He wants to improve inclusivity and diversity – and he wants to ride at the Olympics.”
Fabian is also friends with James Argent, who for eight years was a regular on The Only Way is Essex, and has since lost 13 stone; the pair boxed together, and then Fabian invited James to the yard.
“Then James asked to go again, he loved it,” Jordan said. “He said it was great, but his legs were in agony!”
Fabian’s ambitions include representing his country at the Olympics and becoming a five-time gold medallist.
“Believe in yourself and chase your dreams as no one else will be able to chase them for you,” he said. “I want to be the example; I want to be the person that paves the way for other people who thought they couldn’t.”
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